Newcastle United got their revenge on Manchester United following the League Cup final defeat at St James Park, beating them 2-0 in their Premier League clash this evening.
The Magpies move into third place in the league table following their victory ahead of Tottenham Hotspur’s fixture against Everton tomorrow evening and Eddie Howe will surely be thrilled with his team’s perfect balance of patience and persistence throughout.
The home team absolutely dominated their opponents despite having only 47% possession. Indeed, the Toon had far more shots on target (6 v 1), created more big chances (4 v 0), won more duels (59 v 41) and completed a higher number of tackles too (24 v 17).
Howe and his team would’ve felt that they were unlucky at half-time as they looked the better side throughout the opening 45 minutes with several opportunities squandered in front of goal despite comfortably pressing the Red Devils.
However, when they returned to the pitch for the second half, they finally got the goals they deserved with Joe Willock proving to his manager he was worthy of the starting spot in midfield when he opened up the scoring in the 65th minute to give the Geordies the lead in front of the roaring home support.
It was then Callum Wilson’s turn to show Howe what he had been missing from the bench when he replaced Alexander Isak in the 80th minute and doubled the lead to 2-0 when a free kick driven into the box gave the out of favour striker his chance in the 88th minute.
Indeed, Wilson will be rightly feeling accomplished in delivering the goal that ultimately killed the game for the opponents, but it’s safe to say that Kieran Trippier was the real hero at St James’ Park tonight.
How did Kieran Trippier get on vs Manchester United?
The England international has been an incredible voice on the pitch for the club since his arrival in January 2022 for just £12m but it’s not just his leadership that has been worth its weight in gold to help Newcastle become comfortable contenders in the top four race.
Over his 90-minute performance, the £100k-per-week maestro – hailed for his “elite output” by Statman Dave on Twitter was superb.
Indeed, he delivered four key passes as a marker of his rampant threat down the right-hand side and of course, most importantly, whipped in a wonderful free-kick which earned him an assist for Wilson’s goal.
That well-placed free kick happened to be Trippier’s sixth Premier League assist this season and no other defender in the league has registered more so far, making it an even more impressive day for the right-back.
The full-back is so often the man to provide plenty in attack but he was faultless defensively up against Marcus Rashford and co on Sunday, completing five clearances from his 81 touches, as well as winning three duels.
Howe will be hoping that Trippier and the rest of his teammates can take huge confidence and momentum from their performance to achieve their Champions League dreams over the remaining 11 league games ahead.